| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: send the rain upon you in torrents, and will extend to you wealth
and children, and will make for you gardens, and will make for you
rivers. What ails you that ye hope not for something serious from God,
when He has created you by steps? Do ye not see how God has created
the seven heavens in stories, and has set the moon therein for a
light, and set the sun for a lamp? and God has made you grow out of
the earth, and then He will make you return thereto, and will make you
come forth therefrom; and God has made for you the earth a carpet that
ye may walk therein in broad paths."'
Said Noah, 'My Lord! verily, they have rebelled against me, and
followed him whose wealth and children have but added to his loss, and
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: I determined to leave him, and in the most decided manner, for ever.
I consider all obligations as made void by his conduct; and hold,
that schisms which proceed from want of principles, can never be healed.
"He received a fortune with me to the amount of five thousand
pounds. On the death of my uncle, convinced that I could provide
for my child, I destroyed the settlement of that fortune. I required
none of my property to be returned to me, nor shall enumerate the
sums extorted from me during six years that we lived together.
"After leaving, what the law considers as my home, I was hunted
like a criminal from place to place, though I contracted no debts,
and demanded no maintenance--yet, as the laws sanction such
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: with Condy while he mailed the letters in the nearest box, for he
was quite capable of forgetting the whole matter as soon as he was
out of the house.
"Now let it work!" she exclaimed as the iron flap clanked down
upon the disappearing envelopes. But Condy was suddenly smitten
with nameless misgiving. "Now we've done it! now we've done it!"
he cried aghast. "I wish we hadn't. We're in a fine fix now."
Still uneasy, he saw Blix back to the flat, and bade her good-by
at the door.
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: off and away.
[32] Cf. the German "Mannerchen machen," "play the mannikin." Shaks.
"V. and A." 697 foll.
[33] Passage imitated by Arrian, xvi. 1.
[34] Lit. "imprinting track upon track," but it is better perhaps to
avoid the language of woodcraft at this point.
These animals will give the longest run when found upon the open,
there being nothing there to screen the view; the shortest run when
started out of thickets, where the very darkness is an obstacle.
There are two distinct kinds of hare--the big kind, which is somewhat
dark in colour[35] with a large white patch on the forehead; and the
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